Effects of Hardening Parameter and Strain Hardening Exponent on Residual Stress and Plastic Zone Growth in Aluminum Metal–Matrix Composites under Out-of-Plane Loading

Residual stress variations and plastic zone growth behavior of steel fiber-reinforced aluminum metal–matrix laminated composite plates which are clamped and subjected to outof-plane loading are investigated for different hardening parameter (K) and strain hardening exponent (n). Laminated plates are composed of four orthotropic layers oriented with different angles in symmetric or antisymmetric manner. The plates are meshed into 64 elements and 289 nodes with clamped boundary condition. Laminates are subjected to a transverse uniform distributed load. The loading is gradually increased after yield point of the plate to the higher levels with 400, 500, and 600 loading steps. Numerical solution is performed using the finite element method and the first-order shear deformation theory. For solution, Lagrange elements with nine nodes are used.